1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an arbor for maintaining one or more cutting elements in an operable position and more particularly, to an adjustable arbor for maintaining one or more cutting elements that can be selectively activated and deactivated to quickly position and tighten multiple cutting elements on a shaft without removing the elements from the shaft.
2. Description of Prior Art
Cutting devices such as saws and the like are used in numerous woodworking industries to fashion wooden parts for various components to be made. In particular, the furniture industry uses many varieties of cutting elements for cutting various types of wood materials and for cutting various shapes of wooden members, particularly long, narrow strips which are used in numerous lines of furniture. A particularly important sawing device is used to rip long strips of wood to form framing in upholstered furniture, defect-free components, and defect-free glue stock used to make panels or other furniture components.
Specialty knifes such as those mentioned above are made up of a plurality of spaced apart saws on an arbor driven by a common power source so that multiple strips of wood can be ripped in a single pass. These are frequently needed, and every furniture manufacturing facility utilizes a saw similar to the one described.
The specialty saw referenced above is normally prepared for operation by sliding on a plurality of saw blades on the common shaft with these blades being spaced apart by spacers measured precisely to result in the cutting of strips of a specific width. More than one width may be cut on a single pass, and several strips can result from a single pass. Once the cutting requirements of a specific group of sizes have been reached, the saw must be deactivated, and the blades must be changed to different spacings to accommodate and provide the next batch of strip material.
Using the conventional saw having blade spacers requires all blades to be removed with the exception of perhaps the farthermost blade when strip widths are changed. Thus, the blades and the spacers separating them all come off so that the shaft can be reconfigured with new spacers and blades to give appropriate spacings for cutting. This is a time-consuming process, and the attendant downtime arising from the blade changing operation is troublesome, non-productive and inconvenient.
Thus, there is perceived a need for a quick change gripping saw of the type described that will eliminate the removal of all blades and spacers from the shaft when reconfiguration is required and that will eliminate the need for spacers altogether if at all possible. It is to this need that the present invention is directed.